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Congress should not extend Medicare sequestration to help pay for the bipartisan infrastructure framework because health care providers cannot sustain additional Medicare cuts and Medicare funds should not be used to pay for non-health care programs, the AHA, American Medical Association, American Health Care Association, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and Association for Clinical Oncology told Senate leaders in a letter today. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has persisted in parts of the country, infecting more than 33 million people and resulting in more than 607,000 deaths,” the organizations wrote. “America’s health care providers continue to face historic challenges. Physicians, nurses, hospitals and health systems, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, and hospices have incurred significant expenses to test, vaccinate and treat the sick. Extending sequestration imposes a destabilizing element to health care access in the face of years of experience with cost increases that are not adequately accounted for in Medicare payments.”